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The 13 most powerful members of 'Skull and Bones'

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George Bush

In 1832, Yale students — including future President William Howard Taft's father— founded one of America's most famous secret societies: Skull and Bones.

Since then, the group has come to signify all that both mesmerizes and repulses the public about the elite.

Each year, only 15 juniors are "tapped," or chosen, for lifetime membership in the club. 

A windowless building on 64 High St., the "Tomb," serves as the club's headquarters. The roof is a landing pad for a private helicopter, according to Alexandra Robbins' book, "Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power." For that perk and others, Bonesmen must swear total allegiance to the club.

New members reportedly divulge intimate personal details, including their full sexual histories, before they're inducted. They also agree to give part of their estates to the club. But, in return, they receive the promise of lifelong financial stability — so they won't feel tempted to sell the club's secrets, Robbins writes.

From among those business titans, poets, politicians, and three US presidents, we picked the honor roll.

Christina Sterbenz contributed to an earlier version of this list.

William Howard Taft — Class of 1878

As the only person to serve as both president and Supreme Court chief justice, Taft earned his spot on our list. The 27th president went by "Old Bill" during his Yale days but later earned the nickname "Big Lub."

Taft also received the honorary title of "magog," meaning he had the most sexual experience while in the secret club, according to Alexandra Robbins. 

Young Taft probably found entrance into the club rather easily. His father, former Attorney General Alphonso Taft, cofounded Skull and Bones as a Yale student in 1832.

 



Walter Camp — Class of 1880

Known as the "father of American football," Camp, with other classmates, developed the game from the Brits' version of rugby. He played in the first rugby game at Yale against Harvard in 1876.

Camp created many of modern football's rules, such as assessment of points and limiting the field-team to 11 men per side. But most importantly, he brought organization and esteem to the game, serving on the rules committee until his death. 

Camp also established the National College Athletic Association, still operating today. During World War I, most of the armed forces conditioned using his tactics. 



Lyman Spitzer — Class of 1935

A noted astrophysicist, Spitzer dreamed up the idea behind the Hubble Space Telescope — the first method to observe space uninhibited by the Earth's atmosphere. He also lobbied NASA and Congress for the funds and oversaw production of the actual machine. 

After 44 years, NASA launched the Hubble into space. The Hubble remains there today, providing stunning images of the universe and making new discoveries.

NASA named the Spitzer Space Telescope in his honor.



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This is why I don't worry about warming up my car when it's cold

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snow car

There's a "you're doing it wrong" meme that's showing some strong staying power these days: you don't need to warm up your car when it's cold — in fact, if you do, you could harm your engine.

The engineering behind this revision of what many folks have been told their whole lives is solid, and you can watch this Business Insider video to get the lowdown.

Modern cars don't use carburetors to blend the fuel-air mixture. They use electronic fuel injection, so a pre-drive warmup isn't mechanically necessary.

But here's the thing: If you can't run your modern car for ten minutes or so when it's cold, you should be asking some serious questions about the allegedly advanced state of automaking in the 21st century. It's possible that the old-school warmup would marginally degrade your engine oil, but in 35 years of driving, I've never heard of or experienced this.

Bottom line: Your car should be able to handle some serious extremes of temperature, as long as you aren't spending a lot of time in Death Valley or the Arctic Circle.

Here's why I often warm my car up when it's cold — in fact, why I have been avidly warming up my car since it began to get a bit frosty in the Northeast  :

  • I want a nice warm car to drive in.
  • I want the seat heaters to be good and hot.
  • I want the steering-wheel heater to be all fired up.
  • I want any snow or ice that's accumulated on the windows to be easy to remove.

The first four are about comfort; the last one is about safety. Plus, I think a warm and comfortable driver is a much safer driver than one who's hunched and shivering and has to wear gloves.

Additionally, you won't waste all that much gas with a warm-up at idle. You'd have to run the engine for an hour to burn a gallon.

So go ahead, warm up your car! It's getting colder in much of the US. Warm away!

SEE ALSO: Stop wasting gas by 'warming up' your car when it's cold out

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NOW WATCH: Stop wasting gas by 'warming up' your car when it's cold out

Magnus Carlsen wins the 2016 World Chess Championship

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Magnus Carlsen vs Sergey Karjakin

NEW YORK — Magnus Carlsen defeated Sergey Karjakin on Wednesday to retain his World Chess Championship title.

Carlsen, from Norway, turned 26 on Wednesday, making the victory a great birthday present. This is the third time he has claimed the biggest trophy in chess.

His 25-year-old Russian challenger was a worthy foe. Through 12 classical games, he held tough, scoring a win and briefly putting Carlsen on the ropes.

But Carlsen stormed back and evened the match with a win of his own. Draws then sent the match to tiebreaks.

In those four 25-minute games, Carlsen's edge became apparent. Karjakin consistently got into time trouble, not something that you want to happen in "rapid" chess.

After a draw in the first game and a miraculous escape by Karjakin, playing black, when Carlsen was on the verge of checkmate in the second game, Karjakin ran out of time in the third, and Carlsen had the decisive point he needed.

With the black pieces in the fourth, Karjakin tried the fighting Sicilian Defense for the first time in the match. It's an opening he's played many times, but it's risky in rapid because although it gives black good winning chances, it demands quite a bit of calculation to establish an edge.

Carlsen Karjakin Final Game

The edge didn't materialize and Karjakin again ran low on time, amid several flurries of moves with less than minute on his clock. With a checkmate in eight moves on the board, according the computer analysis, and a potentially brilliant queen sacrifice in the works from Carlsen, Karjakin resigned.

Carlsen retained his title, and Karjakin proved himself to have been a hard-fighting, tenacious opponent.

The final position:

Carlsen Karjakin Final Game

 

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NOW WATCH: Here’s what a computer is thinking when it plays chess against you

Hallucinogenic drugs could soon work like a 'surgical intervention' for mental illness

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desert silhouette

Dinah Bazer was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the spring of 2010.

The Brooklyn resident, an ice skating teacher and former bank IT programmer in her 60s, was devastated. Luckily, doctors were able to successfully treat her disease with chemotherapy, but the dread of a reoccurrence just wouldn't go away. It was like waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"I was totally consumed with fear and anxiety," she said on a recent call with a group of reporters.

So in 2011, Bazer enrolled in a trial at New York University, where researchers were looking to test a substance that they hoped would have a seemingly "mystical" ability to lift depression and anxiety connected to fear about life's end.

The drug they were testing wasn't one dreamed up in a lab. It's the essential component of psychoactive magic mushrooms, psilocybin.

In a living-room-like setting at the Bluestone Center at the NYU College of Dentistry, accompanied by trained therapists, Bazer took a pill. At first she couldn't know whether it was the drug or a placebo, but once the effects started to come on, it would be clear. Sure enough, within about 40 minutes, she started to "trip."

"I visualized my fear as physical mass in my body," a black concentration, she said. She became angry, volcanic.

She screamed. "Get the f--- out!"

And then this woman who said she had been an atheist her entire adult life — and still is — had a strange sensation.

"I was bathed in God's love, and that continued for hours," she said. "I really had no other way to describe this incredibly powerful experience."

The feeling faded, but so did her fear, depression, and anxiety. They have not returned.

psychedelia

Spring for psychedelics

Bazer was a participant in one of two controlled clinical trials of the effects of psilocybin on patients dealing with depression and distress related to facing the end of life. Aside from a few smaller pilot studies, these two trials — one by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the other, which Bazer participated in, at NYU — were the first major ones of their kind. The results from both studies were published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology on December 1, along with 10 commentaries by prominent experts in the field of psychiatry.

The results from both trials were encouraging enough that the scientists involved hope they'll be able to get consent from the Food and Drug Administration to move forward to a large-scale Phase 3 study, the third and final set of human trials that is needed before the FDA considers approving a new drug.

"This is a potential pathway to clinical approval," said Roland Griffiths, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at JHU School of Medicine, who led the JHU study and is one of the pioneers in the modern era of psychedelic research. "But that [approval] requires the next step of going to the FDA and getting permission to move forward."

The recent announcement that the FDA would allow trials using MDMA— the chemical name for the drug commonly known as Molly or Ecstasy — to treat post-traumatic stress disorder to move to Phase 3 gives him hope, too, especially since he says MDMA might have even more "baggage" than psilocybin when it comes to getting approval.

timothy-learyIn a certain sense, this is a renewal of research into the power of psychedelic substances, according to Griffiths and Stephen Ross, an associate professor at NYU's School of Medicine, who led the NYU study.

In the 1950s and 60s, psychiatrists were enthralled by the power of LSD, psilocybin, and other hallucinogens — substances that seemed able to reorganize the way that patients viewed the world and, they say, appeared to help them overcome struggles with alcoholism and other addictions. But the drug prohibition era put an end to that research for decades.

Scientists have only recently begun to experiment again with these substances. Griffiths told Business Insider he started looking into experiments with healthy volunteers around 2000, at a time that such a suggestion shocked review boards, which thought it would be far too dangerous.

But slowly, he was able to convince them. He began to recruit volunteers who hadn't tried LSD or magic mushrooms. This was one of the hardest parts, he says, since he wanted people naive to psychedelics, but most of the people he found who weren't scared of the idea had already experimented some.

A single dose

After the researchers studied a number of healthy people, certain things about psilocybin's effects became clear. In a therapeutic setting, they didn't find any serious, long-lasting adverse effects of the drug. That doesn't mean that they found it to be totally risk-free, however.

Griffiths is also the senior researcher on another paper published December 1 in the Journal of Psychopharmacology that surveyed people who took hallucinogens outside a clinical setting about their worst experiences. Some people said they had gone through difficult or dangerous experiences, some of which caused them to seek psychological treatment later. (That's a small percentage of psychedelic use cases, and many of those same people still said their experiences were important and meaningful, but it's worth being aware of.)

But in a clinical setting, a high percentage of volunteers reported that the experience was one of the most meaningful they'd had in their life, calling it spiritual — something that inspired reverence and increased their overall life satisfaction.

Most compelling was that this substance appeared capable of reliably and consistently inducing what are known as "mystical experiences."

These profound effects were so powerful that eventually Griffiths and other researchers tried psilocybin on people struggling to cope with anxiety about the end of life because they'd been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness or disease like cancer. We don't have a good way to treat the existential anxiety and depression that's prominent in cancer patients and doesn't respond well to traditional treatment, he told Business Insider.

Psilocybe Pelliculosa Mushrooms

Yet a single dose of psilocybin did seem helpful, in a profound way.

The researchers gave patients a dose that was about 20 milligrams of psilocybin for a person weighing 70 kilograms, or 154 pounds. Griffiths' previous work has shown that people who have "bad trips" frequently take more — a median of 30 mg, which is approximately 4 grams of dried mushrooms.

It takes about 20 to 40 minutes for people to start feeling the effects. Patients listened to music during their experience. Griffiths says their playlist included a mixture of classical music, including Henryk Gorecki, Bach, and Beethoven; Indian chant, including Russill Paul's "Om Namah Shivaya"; new age works; and world music, so the researchers could study the "best" music for the experience.

The effects of psilocybin fade after about four hours — one of the reasons researchers like to work with that drug instead of LSD, which can last up to 12 hours.

Afterward, patients talked and wrote about what they'd gone through.

Even six months after the experience, 80% of the 51 participants in the JHU study showed significant decreases in depression and anxiety, as measured by what's considered a gold standard psychiatric evaluation. The NYU team says that between 60% and 80% of its 29 participants had similarly reduced anxiety and depression 6.5 months after a single psychedelic trip.

These findings correspond with results from other pilot studies on psilocybin so far. These studies on treating depression and anxiety related to cancer have been promising enough that researchers began small studies on using psilocybin to treat more common forms of depression. And so far, those results have been encouraging.

Traditional medicine for these conditions is taken over time, has side effects, and often isn't much better than a placebo. In this case, one dose seemed able to make a huge difference.

Griffiths says one way psychedelic researchers have characterized this is as the inverse of PTSD. With PTSD, one terrible experience can change the way a person's brain causes them to perceive the world, with long-lasting effects. This is like the opposite of that — a single meaningful experience that people highly value and has transformational, enduring effects.

"I don't think we have any models in psychiatry like that," Griffiths said on the call with press. "It's more like a surgical intervention."

Still, it's early in the research process. Hundreds of people have now safely received doses of psilocybin, but the drug is still considered a Schedule I drug by the Drug Enforcement Agency, meaning it legally has no accepted medical use. Any researcher will tell you that before they can truly say psilocybin is a safe and effective drug, it needs to get through the strenuous FDA approval process.

And with psilocybin and other psychedelics, there's still a massive unanswered question, one that we may be far away from understanding: How do they work?

human brain connectome

Mystical experiences in the brain

We know that people who take psilocybin and other hallucinogens — in these studies, participants consumed synthetic psilocybin, not the mushroom form — report that they have mystical or spiritual experiences, things they consider significant. But we don't know what causes those experiences.

As Griffiths explained to me, we still don't know what in the brain is responsible for consciousness itself. We don't really have a good way to scientifically characterize the things that transform consciousness.

"We're at very primitive levels of understanding deeper experiences of this type," he said.

We have theories. One interesting one has to do with a network in the brain known as the default mode network, something we associate with self-referential thought — thinking about ourselves. In depressed people, activity in this brain network goes way up, perhaps because of some sort of self-obsession or rumination associated with depression.

But at certain times, this activity drops. Meditation seems to be associated with a strong drop in brain activity in this network, which seems to correspond with the idea of ego dissolution that is the goal of some meditative practices, according to Griffiths. He says he actually became interested in studying psilocybin because of his long-standing meditation practice, which made him think about consciousness and the meanings of spiritual experiences (though he says he was initially a skeptic about hallucinogens). Psilocybin seems to cause a drop in default mode network activity that's very similar to that induced by certain meditators.

shrooms brain networks

But the induced mystical experience is so profound that Griffiths thinks that decrease in activity can't be all that's going on.

"I'm very suspicious of simplistic stories," he said.

Even people who don't really find the experience "mystical" still seem to undergo a reorganization in the brain that changes their perception of the world, something that seems beyond explanation so far. Even harder to understand are the long-term changes caused by the drug.

Looking forward

The patients in the studies published December 1 were all dealing with cancer-related end-of-life anxiety, and it should be stressed that, for now, those are the only people whom we have some idea of how psilocybin affects in a clinical sense.

elderly aging old man walking

The two studies had relatively similar designs, though there were some differences. The NYU study had more of an organized psychotherapy component, and the people who observed the participants were trained therapists. In the JHU study, which involved more participants, some of the observers were psychologists, while others had no formal training.

In both studies, participants had two interventions: one with a full dose of psilocybin, and another with a sort of placebo. NYU used niacin, a form of vitamin B, as a placebo. JHU gave participants psilocybin both times, but one was a very low non-psychoactive dose: 1 mg/70 kg instead of 20 mg.

Griffiths says that since participants knew they would get psilocybin both times, they had some ability to distinguish the difference between when they expected to feel better because they'd "taken psilocybin" and when they actually had the full psychedelic experience.

And while these are the largest studies of their type so far, they're still pretty small.

Researchers say they'll need to see similar results in a larger number of patients dealing with end-of-life anxiety, most likely from cancer at first. Griffiths and Ross both said they expect other studies will then look at patients dealing with terminal illnesses and existential anxiety — though there is definitely a chance that if psilocybin proves effective in these cases, it could work for other cases of depression and other kinds of anxiety. They're beginning to design trials for that research now.

"This is just a long and continuing process," Griffiths said. "When I initiated this research, most of my colleagues were skeptical ... people thought I had gone a little nuts. ... Now I get calls all the time from students who are familiar with what I'm doing and say, 'I want to do that.'"

"I would think in time, whether it's 10 years or 20 years, we're going to have learned how to optimize the use of these compounds, and we're going to have really good models for using them therapeutically," he said. "Some of this past baggage will fall away."

SEE ALSO: An effort to get ecstasy FDA-approved is entering a key final test

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12 gifts the modern gentleman actually wants this year

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Buying for men is difficult. They might not always have a wish list ready, so you're often stuck guessing.

Guess no more. We have a list of gifts that the modern gentleman in your life will love.

From his new favorite sweater to a watch that will last years longer than anything with an Apple logo on it, these are 12 items he didn't even know he wanted.

You can take all the credit. We won't tell.

 

SEE ALSO: The 16 most stylish guys on the planet

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Wireless speaker



The Zeppelin Wireless speaker is, quite simply, everything one should want in a speaker.

First off, it sounds good — really good, especially for its size. For $700 (less than many more expensive speaker sets) you can fill up a decent-sized room with full, rich sound that certainly doesn't lack in depth.

It's completely wireless via both Bluetooth and Airplay, so you can control it from your phone if you have Apple Music or Spotify. It also includes play buttons on the back, as well as a 3.5-mm aux cord port.

In addition, its sculptural shape looks great on the shelf. That's a win-win.

Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Wireless ($700)



Club Monaco Wool Topcoat



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12 'healthy habits' you're better off giving up

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We all have them — habits we think are healthy because we heard them somewhere on the news or from a health-conscious friend. And no matter how much we hate them, we just keep doing them because we think they're good for us.

Take avoiding gluten, for example. Is it really healthy?

Or taking a daily multivitamin. Healthy habit or a little bit of nonsense?

The answers to these questions might surprise you.

RELATED: 12 healthy eating habits that work, according to science

NEXT: Grit may be more important to success than talent — here's how to get it

Using a standing desk.

A recent long-term study looking at data on nearly 4,000 US adults found no benefit in terms of overall risk of dying from standing as opposed to sitting.

In the short-term, however, standing does burn more calories per minute; so if losing weight is all you're worried about, stand on!



Using toilet seat liners.

Viruses like HIV and herpes are fragile, meaning they don't survive very well outside of a nice, warm human body. By the time you sit down on a public toilet seat — even if it was recently shared by someone else — most harmful pathogens likely wouldn't be able to infect you.

Plus, your skin is an effective block against any microbes. (Unless, of course, you have a cut or open wound there, which could allow the bacteria to get in.)



Avoiding gluten.

Unless you're one of the 1% of Americans who suffer from celiac disease, gluten probably won't have a negative effect on you. In fact, studies show that most people suffer from slight bloating and gas when they eat, whether they consume wheat or not. So go ahead and eat that bagel.



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19 life-saving facts that everyone should know

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Just about everyone knows that you should never text and drive, and that you should stop, drop, and roll if you catch on fire.

But life can also throw situations at us for which we don't have a quick, handy response.

Commenters in a recent Quora thread about life-saving facts offered their best tips, which are easy to remember and could have a huge impact if you ever find yourself in a dangerous situation.

You might want to save these for later.

SEE ALSO: 6 animals that attacked critical human infrastructure

Your brain can't handle walking and using your phone at the same time — so look up.

Safety adviser Murali Krishnan points out that walking and using your phone both demand large amounts of cognitive effort. 

As a result, you can't fully focus on both at the same time in the same way you can with walking and gum-chewing, for instance. You'll suffer "inattention blindness," where you may see an object but not process that it's a car speeding toward you.



Eliminate your car's blind spots by adjusting your mirrors properly.

Blind spots aren't inevitable in all vehicles, argues user Kristen Rush. 

By adjusting your mirrors so that you barely see the edges of your own car, you can effectively eliminate the blind spots on the sides of the vehicle. The rear-view mirror should be able to locate any car behind yours. It's worth the few seconds it takes to adjust these when you get in the driver's seat.



Heat transfers faster through liquid than gas, so keep warm by staying dry.

There's a connection between being wet and getting cold, and vice versa for heat, says engineer Lia Lavoie

To ensure your body temperature doesn't fall too quickly in cold environments, invest in clothes made of wool instead of cotton — they'll absorb more moisture so that dampness doesn't linger on your skin. And, of course, do your best to stay dry.



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These are the top 20 party cities in the US and Canada

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Party people

If you live in California, congratulations: Your state is home to five of the nation's hardest-partying cities.

Evite, the event-planning and invitation website, compiled a list of the top party cities in the US and Canada based on the number of events, parties, and gatherings over the past 12 months in cities across North America.

The holiday season is the most popular time of year for parties, and if you feel as if your schedule is especially packed over the next month, you're not alone: Most holiday parties occur the week after Thanksgiving and the last two Saturdays before Christmas.

Here are the cities that party the most.

SEE ALSO: The 15 hottest New York City startups you need to watch

20. West Hollywood, California

Number of events this year: 23,032



19. Phoenix

Events this year: 24,488



18. Raleigh, North Carolina

Events this year: 26,647



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Why pizzas come with that plastic table in the center

Trump Tower has hidden public spaces that aren't found on the building directory

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trump tower

Come January, Trump Tower in Manhattan will act as "White House North," as The New York Times refers to it.

Beyond the skyscraper's shops, private condos, and offices, there are a few hidden spaces that anyone can access — with a catch.

In the late 1970s, Donald Trump set out to build his flagship, 58-story tower in midtown Manhattan. But there was a hitch: the city has mandates for how tall skyscrapers can be in certain areas, and he wanted to go taller.

So Trump struck a deal with New York. The city would allow him to add 20 floors to Trump Tower in exchange for building and maintaining two atriums, restrooms, two gardens, and benches that the public could use.

These areas are privately owned public spaces (POPS), a common urban phenomenon where developers receive special permissions to construct private buildings if they build and maintain public areas within them. POPS are frequently found in New York City because they allow developers to build bigger in high-density areas (across NYC, there are more than 500 POPS in 320 buildings).

Over the last three decades, the Trump Tower POPS agreement has not been entirely upheld, resulting in fines from the city of New York.

Shortly after the tower was completed in 1983, the aforementioned benches were covered with planters so no one could sit on them. According to The New York Times, Trump defended this at the time to the Department of City Planning, citing troubles with "drug addicts, vagrants, et cetera."

The POPS within Trump Tower are still public today, but as Crains New York notes, they are not easy to reach. When writer Nick Turse tried to go to the skyscraper's public garden this past spring, it was closed, and security guards stood at the elevators leading up to it.

The building's entrance on Fifth Avenue doesn't mention any of the POPS, though it features a directory to the Trump Bar, Trump Grill, Trump Café, Trump Ice Cream Parlor, and Trump Store.

Business Insider reporter Kate Taylor also went to Trump Tower in late October, and says one of the atriums was closed to the public.

The open fifth-floor atrium includes a few chairs and tables, four small trees in pots (though one was dead when she visited), and a window overlooking the street.

In addition, the public stone bench was mysteriously removed from the atrium some time in the early spring, according to The Atlantic. A metal one bolted to the floor reappeared in July after Trump Tower Commercial LLC (the company that owns the building) was fined $10,000. 

These moves have garnered controversy because Trump Tower essentially took advantage of the POPS agreement that allowed it to be built — without making the space easily accessible to the rest of New York.

Now that Trump is the President-elect, the Tower's front doors — let alone its public spaces — are even more difficult to access, judging by the secret service and nonstop traffic outside. 

SEE ALSO: The anti-Trump boycott of 50 retailers won't back down — here's how it could affect sales

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I made two important changes in my most recent move — and it made the process so much easier

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Moving is the worst. We're all on the same page here, right? Lifting heavy objects is awful, as is moving said objects, as is carefully placing them down once more. 

movers moving truck boxes

The process is tiring and stressful and expensive. Having lived in cities since starting college in 2006, I've moved... too many times in the past 10 years. I moved to Philadelphia, around Philadelphia, to Barcelona, back to Philadelphia, to New York City, and twice during my time here. A lot of moves.

And earlier this year, I did it again.

My wife and I moved from one neighborhood in Brooklyn to another, just 10 or so blocks apart. But this time, we made two crucial changes:

  1. We hired movers (not packers, but movers who would move our boxes and furniture and whatever else from our old place to our new place).
  2. Instead of buying/collecting a bunch of cardboard boxes we'd end up throwing away anyway, we used a rental service that provided strong, re-usable plastic bins in varying sizes. 

The first option isn't viable for everyone, of course. Movers can be expensive (thankfully, ours weren't), and there's always a risk they'll break something (ours totally did).

The second choice we made, however, is viable for most people. And it made a huge difference in how we moved.

We used a service named Gorilla Bins, which came highly recommended by Yelp users.

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Gorilla was suggested by our moving company, and the reviews online were rock-solid. Like this one:

Just completed my 2 weeks stint with Gorilla Bins and I would definitely move with them again. Drop off and pick up is absolutely painless and having no boxes to build/break down/dispose of is such a luxury. From a price perspective, these were actually less expensive than the boxes my moving company offered to provide, and I chose Gorilla over the other reusable packing companies because they offered the 2 sized boxes in their standard package and were still priced competitively against those who were offering fewer total boxes and in just 1 size.



There are other services similar to Gorilla Bins, like Bin-It, which operate in more locations:

Bin-It is a service similar to Gorilla Bins which is offered in New York City, Philadelphia, and Nashville. Here's a video of how it works:

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But something we really loved about Gorilla Bins is the different box sizes. There were medium and large boxes, which helped to break up our stuff into easily movable piles of boxes.

It's easy to overload boxes with heavy stuff, and the smaller boxes helped us to compartmentalize stuff (like heavy books!) into manageable boxes. In so many words: It helped to stop us from overpacking any particular box.



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Move over, Vine — people are raking in thousands of dollars a week on a new video app

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lively app screenshot 3

Walking around his hometown of College Station, Texas, last summer, 21-year-old social media star Aaron Doh began to get stopped for pictures. Fans recognized him from Vine, where he had racked up 1 million followers by August 2015.

"I think that's when I hit my peak," said Doh, a budding comedian who performs on social media rather than in clubs.

Needless to say, Twitter's recent announcement that it planned to kill Vine was a bummer. For some young social media celebrities, it brought an end to a source of income. Vine stars could charge as much as six figures for a sponsored video, The Wall Street Journal reports.

For Doh, it would obliterate the massive following he spent years building.

The sandy-haired aspiring actor has a plan B. Live.ly, an app that spun off from the video network Musical.ly over the summer, is an emerging live-streaming platform that debuted to half a million downloads in its first week. Live.ly lets users make monetary contributions, which the app calls "gifts," during their favorite users' streams.

An increasing number of Vine expats, including Doh, have turned to Live.ly to make a quick buck by talking to fans who tune in. Some rely on the app's monetization model as a source of income and argue it could one day compete with YouTube and Instagram in terms of ad dollars offered.

"Live.ly is paying my rent, paying my bills, so I don't have to worry about putting food on the table," Doh told Business Insider. "It's not traditional by any means."

2016 saw a mass exodus of stars from Vine. Over half of the app's top 1% of users stopped posting by the start of the year, according to the online data portal Statista. Since Vine announced in October that it would shut down "in the coming months," the app has bled even more users. People can still log in and download their videos from Vine as keepsakes.

It's not a total surprise Vine threw in the towel. The app faced fierce competition.

"Snapchat and Instagram have taken off on the short-form video side, YouTube has always been a giant on the longer-form side, and there are a million different services in between," Business Insider's Jeff Dunn wrote in October.

Live.ly is one of those in-between services with the most potential. But unless you're in middle school or know a child who's around that age, you've probably never heard of it.

Musical.ly, a fast-rising video network with over 150 million users, spun off the live-streaming app in June. People — mostly teens — upload 15-second videos of themselves lip-syncing, dancing, and performing comedy skits. The two apps feed each other traffic by notifying users when their favorite Musical.ly stars begin streams on Live.ly.

jacob sartorius musically

Within 24 hours of launching, Live.ly jumped over 100 chart positions to No. 1 in the App Store. The company did not disclose the number of downloads to date.

Vine and Live.ly aren't one-to-one rivals. While Vine stars create carefully produced six-second bursts of content, Live.ly stars just hit record and talk at their phones. Viewers leave comments and engage with the host in real time. Streams can go on for hours. The longer the stream, the more money you're likely to make, Doh says.

Though the apps are different, Live.ly fills a void left by Vine's collapse: Young people with a smartphone and time to kill can earn a living making videos.

lively app screenshot 1

Bart Baker, the self-proclaimed king of music video parodies, has became a top-earning broadcaster on Live.ly. He cut his teeth making videos on Vine and YouTube, where he has over 8.7 million subscribers. His following on Live.ly pales in comparison, but Baker says he generates enough on the platform to cover his overhead costs.

"For some people, what I'm making off Live.ly you could live off of. If you do it every day for four hours a day, you could probably pull in 30 grand a month," Baker told Business Insider.

Cameron Dallas, the floppy-haired darling of Vine with 9.6 million followers, also made the leap to Live.ly. He's featured prominently in the app's tutorial and is an avid Musical.ly user.

The top 10 broadcasters on Live.ly made $46,000 on average over two weeks, according to data provided by Musical.ly. The average stream lasts about 30 minutes.

aaron doh

Doh does not rank among the app's top-earning broadcasters, but he still manages to support himself on gifts from fans. On a typical day, he holds between one and three sessions, each lasting about 90 minutes, and earns anywhere from $800 to $1,900.

His streams show Doh shooting the breeze with viewers and using funny voices. When a fan makes a contribution, Doh receives a notification that shows the person's username. He takes the opportunity to thank the fan aloud and sometimes follows their account back.

An analytics tool allows Doh to see his top supporters of the week. There are a few "regulars" he can count on to send money, though Doh says it's not the most stable source of income.

A few weeks ago, he made a record $1,900 from a single session.

"The funny thing was, it wasn't really different from any other live stream. It was the person who came [into the stream]," Doh said. "You get lucky with the type of people sometimes."

Live.ly sounds like an easy way for kids to blow through their weekly allowance. It's also not a sustainable method for generating income, especially compared with YouTube's pre-roll ad system.

YouTube places an ad before top creators' videos, tallies up the revenue the ad makes, and splits the profit with the creator. Live.ly users can only encourage their fans to send gifts. This week, I received a notification from one broadcaster saying they would follow the day's top contributor.

A spokesperson for Live.ly told Business Insider that the company is currently looking into additional monetization opportunities such as sponsored videos, which are common on YouTube.

Manly little girl

A video posted by Aaron Doh (@aarondoh) on Mar 15, 2016 at 9:55pm PDT on

Doh credits the engaged user base for keeping him afloat. Thanks in part to users' gifts, he was able to move to Los Angeles and start auditioning for roles in TV and movies.

According to the budding comedian, Live.ly beats other live-streaming platforms because he feels closest to his fans there. It's almost never difficult to fill a 90-minute slot.

"It's pretty crazy, but if you think about talking to your friends for an hour ... I'm talking to 100,000 people at a time," Doh said. "I definitely enjoy it."

SEE ALSO: How to use Musical.ly, the app with 150 million users that teens are obsessed with

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NOW WATCH: Vine is shutting down — check out Trump's incredible account from 2013

Business Insider is hiring an entertainment intern

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business insider new office

Business Insider is hiring an entertainment intern to join our growing team in winter 2017. We’re looking for someone who is obsessed with all things movies, box office, TV, music, awards shows, and more — from the latest headlines to the biggest industry developments.

We are looking for someone with knowledge of entertainment news who is also interested in the business side of the industry and what goes on behind the scenes. Ideal candidates are self-motivated and interested in smart analysis and original reporting on entertainment content.

As an intern at Business Insider, there's no getting coffee, filing, or making copies.

Our interns are an integral part of our team. Many of our current writers and editors started as interns.

BI Interns spend their time doing meaningful work: researching, writing, pitching, and producing features — even breaking news if the timing's right.

Interns are encouraged to work full-time (40 hours a week) if their schedule allows. The internship is paid.

APPLY HEREwith a resume and cover letter if this sounds like your dream internship, and specify why you're interested in working on the Entertainment team.

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A restaurant-less food delivery startup beloved by tech investors delivered 1 million meals in a year

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maple

If you live in a big city like New York, you have more than a few options when it comes to enjoying a quality meal: you can try one of the dozens of restaurants in your neighborhood (and the hundreds outside of it), order takeout, or attempt to cook up something yourself. 

But with each of those options, you're likely sacrificing at least one element you value, whether that's time, effort, or quality of food. 

That is, at least, the idea behind Maple, a food startup that launched delivery to select neighborhoods of Manhattan in April 2015. It's different from other food-centric companies, though, in that it makes its own meals in a restaurant kitchen that's not actually attached to a physical restaurant. 

"The entire city is our dining room. Think of it as building out blocks and blocks of seating," cofounder and COO Akshay Navle said. "The reason delivery makes sense is that we can reimagine what this restaurant looks like, and we can make use of all of this free real estate: your house."

Maple has a preset menu for lunch and dinner every day of the week, excluding Saturdays. Meals can be ordered on Seamless, Maple's homepage, or on Maple's app, which is available on both iOS and Android. Each meal is whipped up by line cooks in one of the startup's five kitchens before being handed over to a delivery person who brings it to its destination. 

The emphasis is on high-quality ingredients sourced from farmers and other suppliers that Maple can independently verify are trustworthy. It sources tomatoes from a local New Jersey farm, cheese and apples from upstate New York, and salmon that's tracked from the moment it was caught. Most lunches cost $12, including delivery, though the sushi, sashimi, and poke bowls cost more. Dinners are priced in the $15 to $17 range, also including delivery.

"Because we own the entire process, we have more margin to go around than a traditional restaurant," Maple cofounder and CEO Caleb Merkl said to Business Insider. "That means we can put that money back in the quality of food that you get."

In the year and a half since launch, Maple has expanded its delivery zone to include five square miles of Manhattan, and it's reached a milestone of one million meals delivered. The startup's five kitchens are intentionally situated so that they each serve an area within the radius of between a mile and a mile and a half. As the company scales to open up additional kitchens, it can further expand its delivery zone.

maple

"We needed to be physically close enough to our customers to be able to put something in the oven in the kitchen and ... still have it be hot by the time it arrived," Merkl said.

A main commissary kitchen in Brooklyn does a lot of the heavy prep work, like chopping thousands of pounds of carrots, to name one example. To coordinate the timing perfectly, Maple has built out a proprietary tech stack that gets smarter as it goes along.

"It's the heartbeat of our system," CTO Dan Cowgill said. "The infrastructure is based on collecting as much data as possible: where riders are, what they're carrying, what's currently being cooked in the kitchen. And that situation is constantly changing."

The system has now collected data about enough buildings in New York — almost 10,000 at this point — to know how to bundle orders for the most efficient delivery. Cooks and packers in Maple's kitchens interact with iPads to prioritize their work. At this point, Merkl says, the company's artificial intelligence makes these decisions at a higher level than a human could. 

"If I know that I have 70 delivery guys out in this zone, and I know exactly how many bundles they each have, I know what the ride time to each of those buildings is, and whether or not it's a doorman building where you can just leave the meal with the concierge, you can say here's the first guy who's going to be back and the minute he'll be back, and that informs the minute the cook starts cooking," Merkl said.

Says Navle: "What we try to do is make sure that no food is sitting around. If a delivery guy is walking in, it makes sure that there's food ready for him to take out. It decides to do something based on it knowing when the next delivery guy will show. If it knows a dish takes six and a half minutes to make, it knows it needs at least a seven-minute lead time before the next delivery guy shows up."

A dish has to pass more than 20 steps before it can earn a spot on the rotating menu, and even after that, the culinary team is constantly refining a dish once they know how popular it is with customers. Even when something is a hit, the team will continue to develop different versions until they create what they feel is its very best iteration.  

"At the beginning, as we discussed the menu and dishes we would include, it was kind of a free-for-all," Maple's executive chef, Soa Davies, said to Business Insider. "We looked at things as they were delivered and noticed, OK, that ingredient doesn't work, stews can't work in this packaging, that lettuce doesn't last, some foods lose temperature more quickly than others."

maple

Davies previously worked in research and development at the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Le Bernardin. Though the stakes were sky-high at Le Bernardin, she found a completely different challenge at Maple, where the culinary team has now developed more than 900 meals.

"At Le Bernardin it was all about refinement, how it looked on the dish. We could work on one dish for six months before it went on the menu," she said. "At Maple, we collaborate palettes. It's supposed to be food for everyone, and we try to be as democratic as possible."

After you enjoy your meal, the Maple app gives you the option to rate the experience out of five stars, as well as give more concrete feedback. What the team has found is that people are really opinionated when it comes to food. 

"They want to engage one way or the other. They'll say, 'This was the worst meal I've ever had' for all of these reasons," Merkl said. "And then we've had people write love poems to Maple." 

Maple then uses that feedback to develop additional menu items like sushi, desserts, beer, wine, and a roster of custom salads that they're currently rolling out to delivery zones in stages. It's also planning on introducing the ability to swap out sides.

The team tries to create a well-balanced mix of items to choose from, both healthy and less so. On any given weekday lunch menu you'll see things like a tofu and soba noodle bowl, a spiced chickpea and chicken salad, a roasted turkey sandwich, and black bean and cheese enchiladas. If a meal is less popular than expected, they'll adapt it to be more in line with what people want. 

Some interesting trends have emerged.

"Sandwiches are really weak on Mondays and get stronger and stronger throughout the week. By Friday they're really popular," Merkl said. "I think people — whether they're on a low-carb diet or whatever — come into Monday and it's like a mini New Years' resolution that kind of falls apart throughout the week."

Unlike some other popular companies that specialize in on-demand services, all of Maple's workers are W2 employees, from the line cooks to the delivery people to the engineers. Everyone who works more than 30 hours a week also gets access to healthcare. 

"Our delivery people are the one physical interaction we have with our customers. The thing with W2 employment is that you can provide training, you can provide a uniform," Merkl said. "It also just felt like providing health care was something we should do."

Maple raised $22 million in Series A funding in March 2015. Greenoaks Capital led the round, with contributions from Thrive Capital, Primary Ventures, Bonobos CEO Andy Dunn, and Momofuku founder David Chang. It had previously raised $4 million in seed funding in November 2014. 

SEE ALSO: What it's like to eat at the $138-a-person restaurant where Trump dined with Mitt Romney

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17 unethical — and sometimes illegal — life hacks people use to get ahead in life

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cheating test

If you could game the system, would you do it?

Users on the question-and-answer website Quora recently shared their "best" unethical life hacks that could score you everything from free Chipotle to major savings at grocery stores.

But be warned: These hacks are uniformly unethical. Some veer into fraud. They should be regarded as informational and for entertainment purposes rather than as actual suggestions. You shouldn't do them. If you do them, you need to take a long, hard look in the mirror.

Keep reading to see the 17 unethical life hacks.

SEE ALSO: The unorthodox productivity hacks of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg

"Buy an appliance that's identical to the one you broke, swap them out, and then return the broken appliance for a refund."

- Jay B.



Take advantage of “grace periods” in ticket-entry car garages.

“Most of these garages will have a grace period so that if you pull in but you didn’t really ‘park,’ you can leave and pay nothing. […]

"Next time you park in one of these garages, grab a ticket like normal and go park. When you’re ready to leave, pull your car close to the entrance, and go push the button to get a fresh entrance ticket, time stamped to that moment (when you’re ready to leave). Then, just go to the exit and put your brand new ticket in the machine or hand it to the person. If you’re within the grace period, you will be charged nothing and you can leave. […]

"Even if you’re a few minutes over, you’re paying for minutes rather than hours or days."   

- Anonymous



Weigh all of your fruit as apples at the self-checkout station.

“Go to a self-checkout and weigh [everything] as apples. If you're worried about getting caught if someone checks, ring up organic [apples] as regular [apples], fuji apples as red delicious, etc. Voila, your grocery bill went down.” - Leigh C.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 100 best restaurants in America, according to OpenTable

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Acquerello SF

Reservation-booking site OpenTable just announced its picks for the best restaurants in America for 2016.

To compile the ranking, OpenTable combed through 10 million reviews for restaurants that are available for booking on its site, which included more than 24,000 restaurants in all 50 states and Washington, DC. Only restaurants with a minimum qualifying number of reviews from the last year were considered. 

As for the winners, New York made a strong showing with 13 restaurants, followed by California with 12. American and French were the cuisine types most commonly appearing on the list, though many restaurants showed an emphasis on global influences and seasonality.

Here's the full list: 

Acquerello– San Francisco, California

Addison Restaurant– San Diego, California

Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen– Memphis, Tennessee

Angelini Osteria– Los Angeles, California

Antebellum– Flowery Branch, Georgia

Arabellas Italian Ristorante– Winter Haven, Florida

Arethusa al Tavolo– Bantam, Connecticut

Ariana– Bend, Oregon

Auberge du Soleil– Rutherford, California

auberge du soleil napa

barmini by by José Andrés– Washington, D.C.

Barrio Café Gran Reserva– Phoenix, Arizona

Bavettes– Chicago, Illinois

Bibou– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Bida Manda Restaurant and Bar– Raleigh, North Carolina

Bistro L'Hermitage– Woodbridge, Virginia

Bistro San Martin– Arlington, Virginia

Bliss Restaurant– San Antonio, Texas

Bolete Restaurant– Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Bones– Atlanta, Georgia

Café Juanita– Kirkland, Washington

Café Provence– Prairie Villa, Kansas

Camp Verde General Store and Restaurant– Camp Verde, Texas

The Capital Grille– Minneapolis, Minnesota

Carlos' Bistro– Colorado Springs, Colorado

Castagna Restaurant– Portland, Oregon

The Cellar– Daytona Beach, Florida

Chachama Grill– East Patchogue, New York

Chama Gaucha– San Antonio, Texas

Charleston– Baltimore, Maryland

charleston restaurant baltimore

Chef's Table at Edgewater– Winter Garden, Florida

Chez Francois– Vermillion, Ohio

Chez Nous French Restaurant– Humble, Texas

Circle Brunch-The Breakers– Palm Beach, Florida

Collage Restaurant– St. Augustine, Florida

Daniel– New York, New York

Fat Canary– Williamsburg, Virginia

Fearrington House Restaurant– Pittsboro, North Carolina

Fleurie– Charlottesville, Virginia

Flight Restaurant & Wine Bar– Memphis, Tennessee

Franklinville Inn– Franklinville, New Jersey

The French Room– Dallas Texas

Geronimo– Santa Fe, New Mexico

goosefoot– Chicago, Illinois

The Goodstone Inn & Estate Restaurant– Middleburg, Virginia

Gramercy Tavern– New York, New York

gramercy tavern

Halls Chophouse– Charleston, South Carolina

Harold Black– Washington, D.C.

Harvest Beat– Seattle, Washington

Heirloom– Midway, Kentucky

Highlands Bar & Grill– Birmingham, Alabama

The Hobbit– Orange, California

The Inn at Little Washington– Washington, Virginia

Ijiji Sushi– San Francisco, California

Joan's in the Park– Saint Paul, Minnesota

Kai – Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass Resort– Chandler, Arizona

The Kitchen Restaurant– Sacramento, California

Kokkari Estiatoro– San Francisco, California

L'Auberge Chez François– Great Falls, Virginia

L'Opposum– Richmond, Virginia

Le Coucou– New York, New York

le coucou nyc

The Little Dipper– Wilmington, North Carolina

Maison Blanche– Longboat Key, Florida

Mama's Fish House– Paia, Hawaii

The Metro Wine Bar & Bistro– Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Michael's-South Point Casino– Las Vegas, Nevada

Mizuna– Denver, Colorado

The Modern-Dining Room– New York, New York

Monarch– Scottsdale, Arizona

o ya– New York, New York

Orchids at Palm Court– Cincinnati, Ohio

Oriole– Chicago, Illinois

The Painted Lady– Newberg, Oregon

Peck's Arcade– Troy, New York

Per Se– New York, New York

Peter Shields Inn– Cape May, New Jersey

Quince Restaurant– San Francisco, California

quince

The Restaurant at Gideon Ridge– Blowing Rock, North Carolina

Restaurant Lorena's– Maplewood, New Jersey

Roe– Portland, Oregon

Russell's Steaks, Chops, and More– Williamsville, New York

Ruth's Chris Steak House– Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Saddle River Inn– Saddle River, New Jersey

Saint Jacques French Cuisine– Raleigh, North Carolina

Seasons Restaurant-Four Seasons– Washington, D.C.

Sette– Bernardsville, New Jersey

Ski Tip Lodge– Keystone, Colorado

Sotto– Cincinnati, Ohio

St. Francis Winery & Vineyards– Santa Rosa, California

State & Lemp– Boise, Idaho

Stonehouse at San Ysidro Ranch– Santa Barbara, California

Sushi Nakazawa-Sushi Bar– New York, New York

sushi nakazawa

The Table at Season To Taste– Cambridge, Massachusetts

Terra Restaurant– St. Helena, California

Thomas Henkelmann-Homestead Inn– Greenwich, Connecticut

The Trattoria– Saint James, New York

Trattoria L'incontro– Astoria, New York

Truluck's Seafood, Steak and Crab House– Austin, Texas

Vetri– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Yono's Restaurant– Albany, New York

Zahav– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

SEE ALSO: A restaurant-less food delivery startup beloved by tech investors delivered 1 million meals in a year

DON'T MISS: What it's like to eat at the $138-a-person restaurant where Trump dined with Mitt Romney

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Here's the real cost of the '12 days of Christmas'

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12 days of christmas

Your true love will need to raise his or her budget for your Christmas gifts this year.

PNC released its annual Christmas Price Index on Friday, and it showed that prices for items from the Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" rose by 0.7% from last year. That's slightly up from the 0.6% pace in 2015.

The cost of everything on the list, from the partridge to the drummers, totaled $34,363.49, an increase of a few hundred dollars from last year. The "core" index, excluding volatile swan prices, rose 1.1% to $21,238.49.

But as the carol goes, all of the gifts except the drummers are counted multiple times, bringing the cost up to $156,507.88.

PNC has published this index for over 30 years based on current prices of the 12 gifts in the carol.

It does it in part to entertain its clients, and you, as things slow down over the holidays. It doesn't expect this to be taken too seriously.

But the index is based on prices of the real items. For example, prices for geese are sourced from a waterfowl farm, and PNC asks a nursery in New Jersey for the cost of pear trees.

PNC found that it was mainly a scarcity of turtledoves that drove the cost of Christmas higher. Wage growth across the economy made pipers and drummers more expensive. Though it has been a wild year for gold, the price of gold rings held steady.

Here's PNC's full breakdown of the 12 days. You can check out a fun infographic here.

Screen Shot 2016 12 02 at 9.32.52 AMThe real economic data in fact shows inflation pressures both within and outside the US. Commodity prices are moving back up after tumbling during the past few years; earlier this week, a deal by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to limit oil production lifted prices back above $50 a barrel.

Also, the US is getting some wage inflation. Average hourly earnings rose in October at the fastest annualized rate since the recession. Though the November report released Friday showed a pullback, the trend has crept higher this year.

And, of course, the 12 days of Christmas are more expensive this year.

SEE ALSO: The unofficial Goldman Sachs gift guide for 2016

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